岩田藤七

Born in 1893 in Nihonbashi-ku, Tokyo, first son of Iwata Tōshichi, head of the Iwata kimono store. His childhood name was Tōjirō. His father Iwata Tōshichi I was born in Kyoto and operated as a kimono wholesaler in Ryōgaemachi, Kamigyō-ku, Kyoto. His flourishing business led him to open a store in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district. Tōshichi II spent his childhood years in Kyoto, and entered the Nihombashi Tokiwa Higher Elementary School in 1899. His father died of stomach cancer in 1900, when Tōshichi II was seven years old. His mother Ichi以ち was born in the home of a fish merchant in Tokyo’s Shitaya district, and was a talented woman who loved to read books about mathematics. Tōshichi’s education across diverse fields after his father’s death was thanks to her resourcefulness. He attended Chinese studies and calligraphy after-school classes while in elementary school. After entering the Commercial and Technical Middle School in Ōtemachi, Tokyo in 1907, the following year he began attending English conversation classes in the Tsukiji Foreign Compound. In 1909 he learned the “tsuketate” painting method from the Shijō school Nihonga painter Inagaki Unrin. After graduating from middle school in 1911, he began studying under Okada Saburōsuke at the Hakubakai Yōga Kenkyūjo (Hakubakai Institute of Western-style Painting). Okada, deeply knowledgeable about decorative arts and particularly glass, would become Tōshichi’s lifelong mentor, influencing him greatly over the years. In the autumn of 1911, Okada said to him, “Only a very few superb people can advance as painters, you should study crafts.” (Iwata Tōshichi, ‘Garasu Jūwa (Ten Tales about Glass)’, “Iwata Tōshichi Garasu Sakuhinshū (Compendium of Iwata Tōshichi’s Glass Oeuvre)”, Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1968). Tōshichi took that advice and on his urgings became a glass artist. In 1912, he entered the Metalworking Division of the Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkō (present-day Tokyo University of the Arts). During his studies he learned metal crafts from Unno Shōmin and Hirata Shigeyuki, and lacquer work from Rokkaku Shisui. As he developed his skills across various crafts, he was able to visit production studios and observe their methods. He became strongly aware of the fact that disciples and studio workers were an essential part of being a craft artist. After graduating from the Metalworking Division of Tokyo Bijutsu Gakkō, he reentered the school, this time in the Western-style painting course. He also studied sculpting, and showed a tendency towards aestheticist literature. Through this process he built a wide-ranging artistic friendship cohort prior to his graduation in 1923. While still a student, in 1919 he married Kuniko, the first daughter of the sculptor Takenouchi Hisakazu (Takeuchi Kyūichi). Tōshichi was then twenty-six years old. In 1922, the year before his graduation, Tōshichi began entering works in the Teikoku Bijutsuin exhibitions (Teiten, Imperial Fine Arts Academy Exhibition), with his first entries in the sculpture division. An event that occurred soon after his graduation is thought to have set him on the glass craft path. Around 1923 Tōshichi met Imamura Shigezō, a banker who was the president of the Tachibana Glass Company. Imamura was Nakamura Tsune’s patron, and with the support of the Mitsubishi "zaibatsu," he also ran the glassware manufacturer Tachibana Glass. The company was shut in 1925 amidst the confusion caused by World War I and the Great Kantō Earthquake, but Tōshichi had the chance to learn about what were at the time the rarest of the rare polychrome glass compounds at Imamura’s private residence. He also welcomed the assistance of several Tachibana Glass workers around the time that he began to experiment with his own glass creation. It seems that he was particularly overwhelmed when he had a chance to see the Third French Contemporary Art Exhibition held in 1924 at the Nihon Bijutsu Kyōkai Reppinkan (Japan Art Association Museum, predecessor to the present-day Ueno Royal Museum). Alongside paintings by Émile Bernard, Paul Signac and Gustave Moreau, and sculptures by Rodin, the display included the glassworks of the Daum brothers. Tōshichi expressed his shock, “For me, seeing that there is such soft, modern glass in addition to ‘kiriko’ (cut glass) completely changed all my thoughts about glass up until then.” (op. cit., “Garasu Jūwa”). On the one hand he received glass compound formulas from Imamura, and on the other hand, through an introduction from Okada Saburōsukei, in 1927 he began studying at the Iwaki Glass research laboratory, gaining all the knowhow that goes into making glass. The Teiten established its Bijutsu Kōgei division (fourth division) in 1927, and the following year Tōshichi entered his “Blown Ruby Glass in Silver Vase” 吹込みルビー色硝子銀花生 (Toyama Glass Art Museum ) in the Ninth Teiten exhibition held in 1928. It was awarded special prize status. He then received that same special status for three years running, including for his “Glass Aquarium” (whereabouts unknown) in the Tenth Teiten, and “Jointed Glass Stand” はぎ合わせ硝子スタンド (whereabouts unknown) in the Eleventh Teiten. This achievement not only increased awareness of Iwata Tōshichi himself, it also conveyed the artistic value of glass to the broader public. At the time glass was yet to be recognized as either fine art or decorative art. The following year, 1931, at the age of thirty-eight Tōshichi founded Iwata Glass Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Kosuge, Katsushika-ku, Tokyo. In 1935 Tōshichi held his first solo show, “Iwata Tōshichi saku–Garasu ni Yoru Getemono Ten” (Ueno Matsuzakaya, Tokyo). He followed with “Shinkō Garasuki Tenrankai” (Nihonbashi Takashimaya, Tokyo) and “Suffre Garasu Ten” (Nihonbashi Takashimaya, Osaka), and from then on chose solo shows as his display venues. In 1937 he exhibited numerous vases titled “tombo tamade” (vase in glass bead style) in his “Iwata Tōshichi Kōan–Daisankai Shinkō Garasu Tenrankai” held at Nihonbashi Takashimaya. Unlike cut glassware, which was then a popular luxury item, these glassworks had a primitive, boneless sensibility that resembled ancient Japanese round beads and comma-shaped glass beads. On that occasion, Horiguchi Daigaku praised them as “a glass mirage,” heralding them as a distillation of the Japanese climate. Tōshichi did not leave Japan until his mature years. Reflecting that fact, he was not influenced by the glass of other countries, producing instead primitive, elemental forms that were a distilled evocation of pliant Japanese sensibility. It required endless effort to maintain a glass factory that could not burn large amounts of fuel and employ many workers. During World War II, and in the postwar period Tōshichi overcame various roadblocks. Throughout that time he continued to study the forms unique to glass that were impossible to create in lacquer or ceramic wares. He explored the use of polychrome glass, the dynamic centrifugal force of blowing and swinging glass, and the effective utilization of the swelling form of blown glass. He continued to hold solo exhibitions up until the year before his death in 1980 at the age of eighty-seven. Throughout his long creative career he introduced new ideas in the field of glass art, including his particularly noteworthy collaboration with ikebana masters, creation of highly aesthetic display spaces, production of glass for architectural use, and challenging himself to create tea ceremony utensils. In the early Shōwa period ikebana used specific materials for its vases, whether ceramic, cast metal or bamboo baskets. And yet, as noted above, Tōshichi made glass vases. Teshigahara Sōfū, the founder of the Sōgetsu school of ikebana, arranged flowers in Tōshichi’s vases as early as his second solo show in 1936. He did not simply entrust his own ideas to the works, but rather through finding new uses for glass, considered how to further enrich and bring beauty to people’s lives. His vase “Hikari no bi (The Beauty of Light)” 光りの美 (whereabouts unknown) entered in the Sixth Japan Fine Arts Exhibition (Nitten) in 1950 was awarded the Nihon Geijutsuin (Japan Art Academy) Prize. In 1954 he became a member of the Geijutsuin (Japan Art Academy). The following year his “Iwata Tōshichi Sakuhin Happyōten Garasu to Hana” (Osaka Shinsaibashi Daimaru) exhibition display method—combining pipes, glass sheets and lighting with Nishisaka Keibi 西阪慶美 (Senkei ryū Sōkyūsha 専慶流蒼丘社 ikebana school) arranging individual flowers in his vases—was well received. Tōshichi showed his creativity through his overall consideration of the spaces and lifestyles surrounding his works. Starting in 1960 Tōshichi took up a new form of glasswork, a series of layered flat panels called “Colorato.” This Italian term, which literally means colored things, refers to the layers of adhered polychrome glass. It appears that Tōshichi chose this name in consultation with Hijikata Teiichi, then director of the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art. He displayed a prototype in a solo exhibition, and the following year received a commission to create a large wall panel to adorn the dining room at Yokohama Takashimaya. In 1963 his panel was installed as the main entrance screen at the Nissay Theatre in Hibiya, Tokyo. Thus Tōshichi’s glass took off, expanding beyond the range of small pieces of beauty on a table to artwork that adorned a surface in an architect’s plan. Tōshichi always sought to create works that surpassed existing concepts and thinking. In 1965 he finally was able to fully introduce glass to the chanoyu tea ceremony world via his “Iwata Tōshichi Shinsaku Chakiten” (Nihonbashi Takashimaya). Tōshichi lamented that while he had thought about glass tea utensils before World War II, he waited to become involved in creating them because, “It was often said that because Sen no Rikyū did not incorporate glass into chanoyu, glass is not antiques, instead it was considered to be something rough and cheap.” (op. cit., “Garasu Jūwa”). He thus decided to wait until the broader use of glass meant that he could offer new stylishly beautiful glass forms. His “mizusashi” (fresh water containers) and tea bowls, like his vases, are vividly colorful works that make use of the flowing nature of glass and thus reflect a worldview distant from the wabi-sabi of the past. Here too Tōshichi challenged existing ways of thinking. Discerning the futuristic nature of glass, from the early Shōwa period onwards he was the leading producer of works that fully utilized the nature of glass as a material suited to functional beauty and artistic expression, and thereby encouraged the Japanese people to consider the potential of glass. (Tsuchida Ruriko / Translated by Martha J. McClintock) (Published online: 2024-03-08)